“Extremism in the defence of liberty is no vice! …moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!” Those were the ending words of the Speech delivered by Barry Goldwater in San Francisco on 16 July 1964.
Today, those words of the then leading Conservative political spokesman of the United States of America should resonate well within the hallways of power in Malaysia, given the prevailing rage to have the Sedition Act and EO in place.
As our BN politicians are scrambling behind the who-would-be the next BN-UMNO leader, aligning support for the Sedition Act seems to have become a defining element of eventual profit-or-loss for individuals.
But sadly, these politicians fail to come to terms with the tidal waves sweeping across the four corners of the world. They fail to know or refuse to know that humanity has entered a new phase in its history on planet earth.
Human rights not a luxury but a basic
Today, the deluge of activist organizations and human rights champions in the world should clearly signal that the uncompromised tenor of warning unleashed by Goldwater against communism (or any form of regime-masters) and a pronounced hostility to excessive concentration of power in federal government has taken root.
Our leaders – both elected by the citizens and those who hobbled into the good books of appointments must realize that even world bodies are already putting the screws in to ensure that humanity attains liberation.
The International Standards and Accounting demands, the International watchdog entities – to name a few among the many for example, are already re-shaping government policies all over the world.
The Malaysian BN-UMNO government cannot be an exception neither can it be wrapped inside a watershed. The magical days of ‘Buy-British-Last’ and ‘anti-Australia’ are long gone.
Hence, insisting, arguing and bulldozing through to see daylight for the Sedition Act or the Emergency Ordinance is not only going against the very tides that are sweeping the world but will also set the nation entrapped in a ‘lapsed wayside’.
Citizens of the world are going extreme distances to bring back liberties into their nations. The Egypt Spring is one such classic example. No matter how much one ex-premier of Malaysia may condemn the unfolding events in some parts of the world, the truth is people today realize that it is no more a sin to fight for liberty just as much as moderation (or manipulation as may be the case for Malaysia), in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.
Stuck in the warlord mentality
The world is shaping itself to embrace the opportunities arising from the new ways humanity will apply, use and live by the flow of information aided by breakthrough and breakaway communication technologies. As humanity prepares itself to be the master and servant of this new age networked society (Manuel Castells), with time flows and the flow of space fast diminishing (Appadurai), there is no place too for ‘moderation’ that BN-UMNO seems to preach.
We cannot think and act in the interest of the present and especially for those who insist that they must remain in power “at all cost”. We need to foresee the future of the many generations of Malaysians who need to sail through in the democratized world of tomorrow.
In short, let us not kill the future progress of generations to come in the pursuit of justice to the power knights. We cannot go on kidding ourselves to be preaching about transformation and becoming a developed world status nation when we are sinking the nation with the yoke of outdated Sedition Act and Emergency Ordinance.
MILBAG
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